Phoenixville, PA -- (SBWIRE) -- 08/27/2010 -- Googling the phrase “.NET PLC driver” lead Laz Temimi, automation and control engineer with Olympus Automation to www.ingeardrivers.com.
Olympus Automation faced several challenges that caused the initial conversation with INGEAR. The INGEAR solution allowed the company to address these issues:
• Enterprise and shop floor ASP.NET application to communicate with various AB Control Logix PLCs over an Ethernet network.
• Window services to read and update data from various Control Logix PLCs over an Ethernet network.
• Window communication foundation services hosted in window services, IIS and console application to communicate with various Control Logix PLCs over an Ethernet network. This enables outside of the application clients to connect and communicate with a number of PLCs over the network.
• To formulate and design Dot net classes that get data from a SQL server database using LINQ to SQL and download data to various Control Logix PLCs over an Ethernet network.
• To design and implement a “Tags server” service which update a tag table in a SQL server database. These data are used by various clients.
• To minimize the number of connections to the various PLCs over the network
Temimi discussed the unique differentiators available only from INGEAR, noting, “By far the most unique feature about INGEAR NET.Logix is that it is like a chameleon it can be embedded “everywhere”. This flexibility has been the key to the project success. Only one developer license is required. Other solutions would have needed several licenses and with INGEAR there is a freedom to have a design to suit the customer requirements rather than a design that suits the OPC servers then the customer’s requirements. It was also beneficial that INGEAR demonstrated the ability to design wrapper classes with required functionality.”
Temimi emphasized, “I have over 30 years experience and Net. Logix by INGEAR is by far more flexible than any other product I have seen in the market.”
The INGEAR.NET software from CimQuest is a set of runtime free class libraries that simplify building, developing, and deploying connected systems for manufacturing applications using Visual Basic or Visual Studio .NET. It uses only three primary classes of .NET code:
- one of which manages the PLC,
- one manages the data that are read from or written to that PLC,
- one manages groupings of methods, properties, and events to optimize read/write operations on a collection.
It includes a direct Ethernet communication channel to the PLCs enabling developers to write HMI interfaces to PLC controls or acquiring data from them. No additional third-party components, drivers, APIs or tools, such as OPC Servers, are required. This simple programming model by CimQuest InGear contributes to faster response times and ease of use and ultimately – profitability.
CimQuest INGEAR
http://www.ingeardrivers.com
Chuck Karwoski
plc.net@ingeardrivers.com
Toll Free: 1.866.935.7979 | Telephone: 1.610.935.8282